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I remember reading recently, either in the DD user manual or the Nuance site that they recommend using the mic setup before every session. Maybe with the new version Nuance have made it so that you have to go through the mic setup every time.

When it starts up DD looks for the USB mic associated with your preferred profile. One can force the internal mic but its not recommended.
Train a USB mic for a profile. In DD preferences uncheck show profile at startup. After quitting DD restart DD with the USB mic inserted. You will go straight to DD full function.

If you mess with the mic, disconnect, reconnect, or use other applications that use the mic (skype) you may have to use System Pref>Sound>internal to reset the the mic in use OR restart DD to activate the profile mic.

abledoc gives good advice. I just want to add that you must use a microphone with USB audio input for Dragon Dictate to work. The microphone built into a Macbook is adequate for Skype and audio conferencing. Audio input with the built in microphone is distorted by background noise and not a good choice for accurate speech recognition.

There's a lot of good advice here and Marty's recommendation against using the internal microphone for DragonDictate is right on the money. When it comes to speech recognition, integrated microphones are all but unacceptable whether they function or not but if you're going to use an external microphone, it has to be a USB microphone or an analog microphone connected to a USB soundcard. With that in mind, you'll find our latest test results in the Microphone Comparison Matrix ~ https://www.knowbrainer.com/storefront/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=18 where you can view our latest microphone test results which compare pricing, accuracy, noise cancellation, features and even comfort.

Note that we do not distinguish between PC microphones and Mac microphones because all of the headset and desktop microphones on the KnowBrainer website work in both Windows and Mac environments (unless otherwise stated).

You won't find any “how to use a microphone” videos on our website because we would hope that any customer who is smart enough to use a computer or speech recognition would additionally be smart enough to figure out how to put on or turn on a microphone but if not, we additionally include a KnowBrainer (pardon the pun) color pictorial step-by-step guide on the process. Although some of our microphones can be used for other purposes, ALL of our microphones are sold specifically for speech recognition. We do not specialize or offer conference, music or any other types of microphones because we specialize in speech recognition. We also inspect and repackage every microphone. If you order a USB soundcard with an analog microphone, you will find the soundcard already connected to your microphone and every microphone is shipped in a complimentary thickly padded zippered neoprene microphone bag.

Thanks for all the advice about microphones, however, the internal mic seems to work fine with very very rare errors. Until I can get dictate to command certain software at all, I won't be buying an external mic.

However, I still don't have any answer to the problem I have - namely, I must go into microphone setup every time I start dictate. This is immensely frustrating. Is this by design, of is there some setting I can use to stop this.

However, I still don't have any answer to the problem I have - namely, I must go into microphone setup every time I start dictate. This is immensely frustrating. Is this by design, of is there some setting I can use to stop this.

I posted earlier in this thread that I had this problem. Not now. To resolve it I did the following. I set up my sound settings as I required, in my case SoundFlower, LineIn, Plantronics Voyager Pro and the Plantronics BUA 100 b/t adapter. I then created a new profile in Dragon Dictate 2.5.1 and did the appropriate voice training. Only then did I delete the two previous profiles that I had used before. When I quit DD and then activated it again the mic settings were in place. There was no need to go in to Mic setup any more.

I have no idea why this occurred because I have used the same mic plus adapter etc for over a year and a half. The previous profile worked flawlessly with this setup. To make sure that I do not have this problem again I follow the same procedure every time I use DD. I first plug in the BUA 100 adapter, then activate my Plantronics Voyager Pro and finally activate LineIn. The last step is to select Dragon Dictate and when it loads I only have to turn on the mic ON and off I go.

I don't know if it is my imagination, but DD appears to be more responsive and accurate since I did the above procedure. Currently I am really impressed with it's performance.

@abledoc, I need to run 2 windows applications vi a virtual machine - I use Parallels Desktop. For some reason, I can't send "modified" key strokes via applescript to the VM - e.g. <control><F5> sends <f5> only, <shift>4 sends 4 and not $, etc. This is clearly a Parallels problem as this happens just using plain applescript and has been reported to them.

Are you iMac or MBP?
Have you considered DNS?
I run VMware and notice similar issues. Dictating 4$ becomes 44.
press the key shift-4, gives a $.
applescript is erratic
keystroke commands are okay
Very strange behavior.
Function keys are also erratic.